A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney

Play Text

Tonight Walt is going to read you a screenplay he wrote. It’s about his last days on earth. It’s about a city he’s going to build that’s going to change the world. And it’s about his brother. It’s about everyone who loves him so much, and it’s about how sad they’re going to be when he’s gone.

Right? I mean, how can they live without him? How can anyone live without him?

Artistic Director Sarah Benson directs the world premiere of Lucas Hnath’s adrenaline-charged odyssey, a supersonic portrait of the man who forever changed the American Dream.

“This cast of actor’s actors delivers the blunt, fragmented, elliptical music of Hnath’s dialogue with great wit and precision. Wood’s hangdog whine, Sgambati’s shiny brutality, Quaid’s quivering rage—they all play off the central force of Pine’s silken presence perfectly. And Pine is magnificent…Nothing that ever came out of the Magic Kingdom was ever this animated”

“A blood-pumping and often hilarious evening of theater…Beyond being very funny, the poetic brevity and jarring choppiness of [Hnath’s] dialogue captures the spirit of a generation of civic-minded Americans, like Disney…”

3 Responses to “A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney”

[…] I first heard rumblings about this play after the PRELUDE Festival last October, and voila! Now the World Premiere of A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF WALT DISNEY is being produced at Soho Rep April 30-May 26. The play is written by rising star Lucas Hnath, directed by Sarah Benson, and features a solid cast with Larry Pine as Walt Disney, Amanda Quaid as Daughter, Brian Sgambati as Ron, and (my personal favorite!) Frank Wood as Roy. I don’t know a whole lot about the plot, other than Walt Disney is reading a screenplay he wrote about his last few days on Earth. Soho Rep describes it as an “adrenaline-charged odyssey, a supersonic portrait of the man who forever changed the American Dream.” I expect big things. Buy your tickets here! […]

[…] popular culture have been much present on the New York stage these days, from Lucas Hnath’s A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney at Soho Rep earlier this year to Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, which runs […]